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Archiver > GERMANY-PASSENGER-LISTS > 2007-08 > 1188433290


From: Siegfried Rambaum <>
Subject: Re: [G-P-L] Brand/Berner/Bach
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:21:30 -0400
In-Reply-To: <42CE076F-7B17-47C1-9B65-EFD206633926@verizon.net>


Good evening, Peg;

Don't become a victim of your prejudices.

> I'm not sure that they would have been "Jean"

Why not? Here a few examples of real names found in Alsace:

Jean-Paul Ecklé
Pierre Frick
Gilbert Meyer
Eric Rominger
Paul Zinck
Pierre Arnold
Charles Baur
Justin Boxler
Marcel Deiss
Christian Engel
Hubert Engel
Albert Hertz
Ernest Horcher
Bruno Hunold
Henri Klee
Francois Lehmann
Albert Schoech
Francois Schwach
Jean-Marie Sohler
Hervé Sohler
Vincent Stoeffler
Francois Wischlen
Pierre Adam

These are real people. Tell-tale German-origin surnames, mostly French
given names ... with a few German given names, and a few that have the
same spelling in both German and French.

So, why do you think the name would not have been JEAN ?

> although they might have been "Johann",

Actually, there is no reason to expect a boy born in Alsace to come as a
Johann.

> although the other family names aren't too German either.

You need to think in different categories than Black and White, German or
Non-German. Think Alsatian, which is not really French, and not really
German either.

> Alsace is part of France now but a lot of its history and language
> are Germanic.

Psssttt ... *whisper* ..... please look up the meanings of "Germanic"
and "German" in Webster. They are not the same thing. While "German" cer-
tainly falls under "Germanic", not everything "Germanic" is necessarily
"German". It could be Dutch, Danish, Swedish, English, Icelandic, Norwe-
gian, Austrian, ... etc.

Baut back to Jean. Castle Garden has two Jean Bach listed as having emi-
grated from France. And in the time in question, Alsace was France, thus
thos Bachs would have been French citizens and be listed as from France.

Siegfried


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